Fifty-two-year-old Pramod Jain has been living in Kairana, a subdivision of Shamli district in Uttar Pradesh, since he was born. He was shocked to find that the local BJP MP Hukum Singh had publicly announced that Jain's family is one of the 364 Hindu families, who were allegedly forced to leave Kairana by local Muslims.

“This is shocking that this kind of misinformation is going around about me and my family,” Mr Jain told The Hindu. Two days after Mr Hukum Singh claimed a “Muslim conspiracy” to “turn Kairana into Kashmir by forcing the Hindu residents of the area to leave, The Hindu went to the area to verify his claims.

Like Pramod Jain, Sonu’s name figures in the list as the fourth Hindu who was “forced to leave.” Sonu was not there at his house in Chowk Bazar on Sunday morning but his brother Rohit asks: “How can anybody say that we have left Kairana when we very much work here?” Rohit assists his brother in his small shop.

Conspiracy, says MP

When The Hindu confronted the MP about the apparent loopholes in his claims, Mr Singh remained insistent that there was a “conspiracy” behind the Hindus’ migration.

“I have given a list of Hindus who had to flee due to the terror created in this area. Let the administration investigate,” he said.

While no resident of Kairana accepted the claims of “forced migration of Hindus”, some of them, including BJP workers, claimed that a few families had migrated to Shamli and other places in 2014 out of fear, due to the activities of a local “goon” Muqeem Kala.

“Criminals are very active in the area who trouble and harass the business community. Because of that harassment, many families were forced to leave,”said Sompal, a BJP worker. Asked how many families left Kairana, Sompal said that there were over two dozen. Sompal's observation somewhat matched what the local administration found in its door-to-door verification of 200 houses from the list given by the MP. SSP Anil Jha, who is camping in Kairana, said that a large number of people had left in search of employment opportunities in the last 5-10 years. Some of them left for Shamli when it became a district. One member of the four teams which were constituted by the District Magistrate of Shamli, Sujeet Kumar, to investigate the claims, said that “only 15-20 families were found to have migrated from Kairana apparently due to fear of the local criminals and not Muslims. About two dozen people mentioned in the list died and similar numbers are still staying in the area”.

‘Lawyers went to practice’

“[Hukum Singh’s] list includes at least 15 lawyers whom I personally know. They shifted to Shamli in 2012 when it became a district for the very reason that a lawyer would always like to practice in a district court than at a small town court,” said Shailendra, the president of the Kairana Bar Association.

The list included Praveen Garg, who confirmed Shailendra’s claims and also told The Hindu, that “Vicky Kansal who figures on 10th number, and Anuj Mittal whose name is on 13th number very much stay in Kairana.”

But Mr Garg, who is associated with BJP, also said that though Hukum Singh's list might be exaggerated there was a lack of confidence among Hindus with the Samajwadi Party government.

Mr Shailendra said, “There is a difference between Muqeem Kala attacking local businessmen and local Muslims terrorising local Hindus. How could Hukum Singh generalise a case of crime into one of terrorising Hindus? Even Muslims were victims of Muqeem Kala.” Several residents told the The Hindu that not only Hindus but Muslims were also leaving in search of employment and better life.

The BJP is sending a fact-finding team to Kairana on June 15. BJP president Amit Shah referred to a “Hindu exodus” in the ongoing national executive meet in Allahabad.

BJP lawmaker Hukum Singh, who had alleged a "Hindu exodus" from the Uttar Pradesh town of Kairana, has now said that it is not a "Hindu-Muslim issue".

Mr Singh had last week released a list of 346 people and said they were Hindus who had fled their homes in Kairana, a Muslim-majority town in western Uttar Pradesh, because of "threats and extortion by criminal elements belonging to a particular community".

Today Hukum Singh released another 63 names of people who have purportedly fled from nearby Kandhla, but told NDTV that his lists do not just have Hindu names on them. "By mistake someone in my team mentioned Hindu families. I asked them to change that. I stick to my stand that this is not a Hindu-Muslim issue. This is just a list of people who have left Kairana under duress."

At a news conference the BJP lawmaker said, "I have asked my workers to re-verify...a few names may be off the mark, but largely it's the same. It's not a communal issue, but a law and order problem."

BJP president Amit Shah brought up Kairana at a public rally in Allahabad on Monday and at a BJP conclave in the city before that, "UP should not take Kairana lightly, it is a shocking event...the Kairana exodus is no ordinary event," Mr Shah said at the rally as he campaigned for assembly elections to be held early next year.

The UP administration has been conducting a door to door survey over the last few days to verify Hukum Singh's claims, and a senior official Sujit Kumar told NDTV, "We have verified 119 names. Four were found to be dead, 68 left Kairana a decade ago and 35 left five years ago in search of better livelihood."

"We haven't found a major law and order lapse," Mr Kumar added.

The BJP has said it will send a fact-finding team this week to Kairana, which is not far from Muzaffarnagar, the epicentre of deadly riots that killed over 60 people in 2013.

The Congress and Samajwadi Party have accused the BJP of attempting to polarise voters by raising Kairana months before assembly elections are held in Uttar Pradesh.

They also attribute the BJP's sweep of 71 of the state's 80 seats in the national election of 2014, to an alleged polarisation of voters after the Muzaffarnagar riots.

"This is not keeping elections in mind. We are not trying to polarize. We are talking only about development. When they want to polarize on the basis of caste and religion, they allege this," said senior central minister M Venkaiah Naidu of the BJP.

Uttar Pradesh: Officers Say Kairana MP List Has Dead, 68 who Left Long Back

By Manish Sahu

June 13, 2016

THE Shamli district administration Sunday formed four separate teams to look into allegations made by BJP MP Hukum Singh that 346 Hindu families had fled their homes in Kairana town over “threat and extortion by criminal elements belonging to a particular community”.

Each team, led by a tehsildar-rank officer and including a revenue officer and constables, will go door-to-door for inspection. The teams visited some houses on Sunday.

BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday expressed “serious concern” over Hindus being “driven out” of Kairana, at the party National Executive meeting in Allahabad.

The Shamli district administration said they had the list of names released by Hukum Singh. Shamli SP Vijay Bhushan said that among them, only three murder cases were related to extortion and police had arrested 25 people in those cases.

Upon learning about the list, Shamli District Magistrate Sujeet Kumar had on Friday told SDM Ram Avtar Gupta and Deputy SP Bhushan Verma to probe into the allegations.

SP Bhushan said the two officers had found that “four persons named in the list died around 20 years back, 13 people were found staying at home, and 68 had left Kairana several years ago for better life. The process of verifying other names is still on.”

DM Kumar said that Shamli’s local intelligence unit had not submitted any report of people leaving Kairana over law and order so far.

On the teams formed on Sunday, SDM Gupta said, “They will visit each house of those mentioned in the BJP MP’s list. They will collect complete details on them, including where they are staying at present. If families are not found at their address, the teams will find out where and when they have gone. They will also record the statements of locals to know the reason behind them leaving their home.”

The BJP MP from Kairana, Hukum Singh had put out a list of 346 Hindu families who he said had left their homes following threat and extortion by people belonging to a particular community.

The list carries names of the head of each family, their addresses and also what they were doing before leaving Kairana.

He had alleged that the situation had started developing soon after the Samajwadi Party came to power and intensified after the Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013, and claimed that it had become modus operandi in Kairana to harass Hindu families, forcing them to sell their shops and houses on meagre rates. He also claimed that locals, particularly women, were feeling unsafe.

The MP had also released a list of 10 people who were murdered for allegedly not paying extortion.

The NHRC has also taken up the matter, sending a notice to the Akhilesh Yadav government.

RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha on Monday dubbed the mass exodus of Hindu families from Kairana village of Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district as a manifestation of ‘anti-Hindu’ ideology, which had led to nation’s separation in 1947

Expressing shock and concern at the exodus of Hindu families, Sinha said it was the remnant of Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s ‘ideology’ which had led to such a situation.

“The incident of Kairana is shocking and I think any intervention would be welcomed to rehabilitate Hindu’s there. It is not only the question of rehabilitation but also fighting the mindset of Jinnah. It is a vestige of Jinnah which is creating such a situation. It is this ideology which parted the country in 1947,” Sinha told ANI in New Delhi.

“Kairana is becoming Kashmir. We cannot tolerate that Hindu are being forced to migrate. It is not communalism it is anti Hindu mindset which is acting,” he added.

BJP legislator and Muzaffarnagar riots accused Hukum Singh had earlier reportedly said that Hindus were being forced to leave their homes in the Muslim-majority town.

According to reports, the police have ordered a probe into the alleged migration after Singh presented a list of 346 families from the Muslim-majority town, claiming they had to leave their homes after attacks and extortion attempts.

“Kairana is becoming Kashmir. We cannot tolerate that Hindu are being forced to migrate. It is not communalism it is anti Hindu mindset which is acting,” he added.

BJP legislator and Muzaffarnagar riots accused Hukum Singh had earlier reportedly said that Hindus were being forced to leave their homes in the Muslim-majority town.

According to reports, the police have ordered a probe into the alleged migration after Singh presented a list of 346 families from the Muslim-majority town, claiming they had to leave their homes after attacks and extortion attempts.

Many Hindu families left western Uttar Pradesh’s Kairana town not because of Muslim criminal threats but in search of jobs five years ago, an HT investigation found on Monday, indicating “mass exodus” allegations may have been made to fan communal passions ahead of state polls.

Local BJP member of Parliament Hukum Singh has dominated headlines for the last week after alleging that Muslim gangs -- including that led by the alleged ringleader Mukhim Kala -- issued extortion threats to 350-odd Hindu families and drove them out of town, with cover from the Samajwadi Party.

But when Kala was arrested last October, he had 14 murder charges against him, 3 Hindus and 11 Muslims.

The BJP’s list doesn’t mention 115 Muslim families who also migrated from just one locality of Alkala in the town.

The local administration’s verification of 119 names given by Singh found that 66 of them left their homes five years ago, way before Kala was active or the SP was in power.

Moreover, the list of people isn’t typical of those who get extortion threats. 34 of them owned small shops, 55 were laborers, 13 farmers, five lawyers, two school teachers and three clerks.

But what the BJP’s charges appeared to have done is inject communal feeling in the Muslim-majority town that has otherwise always remained peaceful, even in the midst of the Muzaffarnagar riots two years ago that killed 60 people.

Kairana is also just 10 kilometres away from Panipat, a thriving business hub. “We are verifying the complaint by Hukum Singh, and so far we have found these are instances of migration. Shamli does not have any industries so approximately 8000-10000 people go to Panipat and other places in Haryana,” district magistrate of Shamli, Sujeet Kumar said.

Kala struck terror in Kairana two years ago by killing two businessmen. A few weeks later, one more businessman Vinod Kumar was shot dead in broad daylight.

After Kumar’s death, the town locked down in protest for 12 days. In the weeks preceding Kumar’s murder, 200-300 Muslims volunteer helped the Hindu Kawaria pilgrims, a tradition in the area.

In Kairana’s Peepthothala, two blocks of a house that lawyer Anshuman stays is remain locked. These two blocks belong to his brothers who left in 2010 to start cosmetic shops in Meerut and Delhi. “There are no jobs here, no facility, I cannot move so I stayed back, but yes safety is a concern,” Anshuman said.

But Vinod Kumar’s brother Varun thought differently. “Only one community received the demands for extortion and another community was spared,” he said.

The buzz in district headquarters of Shamli is that the immediate provocation of the controversy is the upcoming assembly polls. Singh might have been worried about the loss of his nephew to SP’s Nahid Hasan in the local bypolls last year.

The controversy threatens to rupture the fabric of communal harmony in the town. The Muslims are mostly converted from the Gujjar community, so in a multi-pronged poll contest, a fractured electorate improves the chances of non-Muslim candidates. The BJP’s national executive meet in Allahabad also indicated the party intends to highlight the alleged communal problem in Kairana during the UP polls campaign.

Back in the 100,000-strong town, a lack of jobs appears a bigger problem than communal ill-will. A quick check of employment under MNREGA shows there are not many takers for the scheme. Kumar has the explanation, “In Shamli Mnrega gives Rs 172 whereas in Haryana its Rs 262. So even for Mnrega people from Kairana prefer Panipat”.

In Alkala – the neighbourhood where many Muslims migrated from -- Mohammed Khursheed said, “We are four brothers and I am the only one here. My brothers left in search of job several years ago and settled there”.

In this lane of two dozen houses, seven are locked because the inhabitants have migrated in search of job. “Jobs are the main concern here. Otherwise Kairana is a communally peaceful block with all its complexities”, says Sujeet Kumar.

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